Author's Notes:

Just a fun one-shot today.

One-Shot 5

This is Torture

The manager was going insane. Absolutely insane. What was real anymore?
He stared back at Ruby. She was staring off slightly to the side of his head and smirking knowingly.

He couldn't turn around.
Her smile widened.

He whimpered a little. Just a little. Why did she have to come back?

His eye twitched slightly as Hedy stared at something behind him. She had her head cocked slightly like she was listening to something.

Wait, what was that noise? Was that a voice?

She wasn't smiling, but he just knew that she was enjoying this.

Mike seemed like he was trying to keep eye contact but his eyes kept drifting off to the side, always to the same point. He shivered. He felt cold.

"What are you looking at?" he snapped.

"Oh, nothing," Mike smiled sheepishly as his eyes moved back to that same damn spot.

Even Hedy's brother was in on it. The guy was staring past him and the manager was pretty sure his eye was twitching. It had become a pretty permanent tic.

What was his name again? J something right? He was a cop or something. Which already made him nervous.

Did the cops know about the… about the ghosts?
Was that why they never came around?!

"What?" he croaked.
"Nothing," the guy still didn't look at him. "Mess with my sister again like last week, and I'll make you regret it."
"Y-you're law enforcement! You can't threaten me!"

"And Hedy's my sister. Do the math."

The manager swallowed hard.

He was walking through the building hurriedly. He tended not to want to be around lately in case he ran into one of the night shift.

He groaned internally when he spotted the two foxes up ahead of him. Great. He always felt pretty threatened around those two.

He tried to speed up and almost stumbled when Mangle cheerfully chirped, "Hi Mana-" then her eyes widened and went to the side slightly. "Oh, hi, I-nevermind." she smirked.

A chill went down his spine. That wasn't programming.

He glanced over to Foxy. The other fox was staring at the exact same fucking spot.

Foxy tilted his head ever so slightly to the side. And then grimaced.

The manager got the fuck out of there.

The manager looked between the door and the creepy puppet animatronic standing between him and freedom.

He wasn't looking past the Manager or anything. He was staring him dead in the eyes.

"Afternoon," the animatronic said, completely calm.

The manager gulped. Was he supposed to answer back?

The bot didn't move and he didn't have the guts to try and get around him.

"Don't you feel like the building is a bit… overcrowded these days?" he asked curiously.

The manager made a strange, strangled whimpering noise.

The bot hummed.

"Have a good day manager. You might want to take the long way around. This hallway is… occupied."

The manager didn't leave for another three hours.

It was stupid, he knew. But he could NOT handle running into one of the bots or night shift (who never seemed to FUCKING LEAVE) again. So he took a detour through the least used parts of the building. That did involve going through Fazbear's Fright, but at this point the main building was more terrifying.

At least until he opened a door and found Springtr-Spring Bonnie and that ghost bear playing cards. They both looked up at him.

Was that a cat in the bot's arms?

Silence stretched between them. He couldn't move.

"Fuck off," Goldy deadpanned.

"Goldy, don't be rude," Spring scolded.

"I will say what I want to that man," she huffed, playing a card.

Spring sighed. And then went back to staring at the manager.

He closed the door and went back to his office.

This was a problem. This is a BIG problem! He hadn't been able to leave this forsaken building, and it was almost midnight.

If the building was haunted during the day, what the hell happened after midnight?!

He paced in his office for a bit before steeling himself. He was going to leave. He was going home, dammit!
He only made it halfway there before Timmy appeared, sitting in the middle of a hallway. The manager stared at him and the kid stared back.

He chose a different route.

Unfortunately, he didn't make it in time. He definitely wasn't imagining the sound of doors slamming shut and locks clicking. He froze. And shivered. Why did the temperature suddenly drop?

"Meow."

He spun around and spotted that cat he was ignoring the existence of staring back at him.

It hissed and he ran.

He needed out! He needed out! He didn't want to die in whatever mad hell Ruby engaged in during the night.

Suddenly he was plunged into darkness and his heart just about stopped. He had to stop running and slowly make his way through the halls, hand on the wall.

There was another hiss and suddenly claws swiped at his legs.

He screamed and started running blindly. Abruptly his foot caught on something and he tripped and fell, hitting the floor and probably breaking his nose.

That was when he became aware of voices.

"I swear if someone was playing with the damn doors again, I'm going to kill them," Ruby seethed.

"It could be an electrical fault?" Mike suggested.

"Or the building playing a prank," Hedy muttered. "It seems awfully happy about something."
The fucking floor rumbled underneath him and suddenly the lights came on again. He blinked in the brightness and stared up at the night shift. The three stared back.

"The fuck?" Ruby asked.

"Language," Freddy yelled from another room.

"Ah, shut up! I heard what you muttered when you lost that last Mario Kart game!"

"WHAT?!" Mangle shrieked. "FREDDY!"

"What are you doing here?" Mike asked as the sounds of a fight started up. He glanced at his watch.

"I want to go home," the manager whimpered.

"Yeah, good luck with that, I think the building wants vengeance since you messed with its emotional support mechanic."
"Hey…" Hedy protested weakly.

Mike just smirked at her.

"Welcome to hell," Ruby smiled sweetly. "Guys! I think it's paint night! Night shift against the Manager!"

"Damn. I wore my nice skirt today," Hedy whined.

He didn't remember much of that night, except for the brief time he lay curled in the fetal position in the vents until they tilted ninety degrees and kicked him out.

He didn't feel safe in his office anymore.

It was good to have a day off. He needed it. Some nice peace and quiet in the park. Among nice, normal people.

He was still sane. It was fine.
Everything was fine.

"Catch, Mike!"

No…

A frisbee went flying and Mike caught the flying disc right in front of him.
"Oh… hi Manager."
And his eyes kept darting to the side again.

Hedy rolled over, eyebrows raised in surprise. "Fancy seeing you here."
They both stared at him.

Nowhere was safe.

"We were just getting some fresh air, discussing the opening of Fazbear's Fright. Everyone needs a change of scenery occasionally, don't you think? Ruby's joining us after she gets out of school."

He just kind of… whined in response.

Every single time he ran into one of the night shift, they pulled this. He started hearing things, feeling cold all over whenever he was forced to talk to them. Hedy's knowing eyes. Ruby's gleeful expression. Mike's apparent innocence. That detective's judging eyes…

And then…

Then, it got worse.

Because he'd rationalised it to paranoia. To the night shift screwing with him.

And then it happened...

He was talking to Jerry about something when the man's eyes suddenly slid to the side of his head and he stared.

Just stared.

Something snapped, and the manager ran screaming back to his office.
"What the fuck?" Henry asked in confusion, holding a pile of dirty dishes.

Jerry shrugged. "I dunno. But Hedy and Ruby always do that, so I thought 'why not?'"

It was building up, so it was no surprise when the manager eventually snapped.

"Stop doing that!" he yelled at Hedy and Ruby who were scowling at the air behind him.

They used a variety of expressions for this stupid trick.

Hedy raised an eyebrow. "Doing what?"
He gestured at them both. "This! I know there's nothing there!"
The cold was just his mind playing tricks on him.

Ruby crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow in an eerily similar way to Hedy.

"Really?"

He was done with this!
"Yes! There's nothing… there…" he trailed off as he turned and came face to face with an unfamiliar man who apparently had been making stupid mocking faces behind him.

Transparent.

Floating.

...Dead.

"...Boo."
The manager ran screaming again.

He didn't register the pained yelp from behind him.

"What the fuck?!"

"That's my automatic reaction to seeing you shit ghost."

"Go away, Michael," Hedy sighed.

"Fuck you- ow!"

"She asked nicely. I won't."

The manager fainted when that ghost kid, Timmy, walked through one wall, right across his path and through the other.

He almost cried in relief when he got contacted by a university asking him to do a talk on managing a large staff in a company that relied on sophisticated technology.

He almost ran out the door when he got the email.

It was going great. He got through two classes pretty easily. The students were mostly bored college kids that had no interest in this talk. If it wasn't mandatory or for extra credit, then he probably wouldn't have this many kids.

And then… it happened.

He walked in for the last class, actually feeling relaxed for once.

And there was fucking Hedwig Lamarr Fitzgerald sitting in the front row, talking to a girl next to her.

He almost turned right around and left, but some latecomers were pushing him in already and the door slammed closed.

Everyone turned to look at him.

The first thing to cross Hedy's face was surprise when she looked up. And then it was closely followed by something that was far too close to that gleeful look Ruby got a lot.

Why did this always happen to him?

For the first ten minutes he tried his best to not look at the mechanic. He'd just started to relax when suddenly she stuck her hand up, interrupting his talk.

"Uh y-yes?" he asked with a strained smile.

"What would you say is the best way to create a welcoming team environment with emphasis on equality and the consideration for your employees' health and wellbeing, sir?" she asked sweetly. The girl next to her looked at her strangely.

Well… fuck her too.

He stumbled through a hurriedly put together and mostly bullshit explanation while trying to ignore the way her gaze was always slightly to the side of his head.

It was impossible, so why did he still feel cold?

She kept asking him questions through the lecture and he got more and more flustered. He just wanted to leave.

He sighed with relief when the lesson was finally over and then tensed up again when that damn bitch came over to him with her friend trailing behind her.
"Thank you for the very informative lecture, sir," she told him, waving her friend ahead of her. "I'll be just a sec, Alex."

The other girl still hung by the door though, looking at them curiously but out of earshot.

"Ah, no problem," he gave a weak, wavering smile to Hedy.

Her smile turned wicked. "Timmy certainly enjoyed it. He tagged along with me to university today. Wanted to know what it was like."
"He's a very good liar," the ghost's voice agreed from under the desk.

The manager couldn't breathe for a moment as Hedy passed by.

"See you tonight!" she called cheerfully.

"Oh," the other girl's expression twisted. "That's your scumbag boss?"
"Yup."